tsuru-kame

picked this one up in some funky shop in Osaka/Shinsaibashi that sold mostly womens clothing, lots of funky hippy jewelry, incense, and other weird stuff. lucky for me they had a small section of guy-looking clothing (although it's pretty hard to tell sometimes in Japan).

this is only one of many shirts i have that feature my amphibious, half-shelled brethren...but this one also has a tsuru (crane) on the front. the significance of this, i've been told, is that both creatures represent longevity and good luck in Japanese culture, and are commonly depicted together in scenes to illustrate the famous saying: "as the Crane one thousand years, as the Tortoise ten thousand years."

i'd always known the tortoise represented longevity etc...but this was the first time i'd heard this saying involving the crane as well. interesting...





(1000 years...)



(and 10,000 years x 4!)

(oh yeah, "kame" is Japanese for turtle/tortoise)

of monkeys & mice...

for me, the randomness of stuff in Japan is part of the country's charm. i don't think for a second that i would've bothered to buy t-shirts like these back home in Canada...but being in the hustle/bustle of Osaka, for some odd reason i guess i must've just felt compelled to(?)! it wasn't peer pressure or anything either...not like i'd ever really seen anybody around here wearing stuff like this...

but that's prbbly only b/c i bought them all first! =P



(obtained at this shop in Shinsaibashi, i don't really know why the monkey's holding a gun...or smoking a cigar...but i found the step-by-step instructions very useful, since i suck at drawing.)

more drawing help for fans of Mickey:





...now that i think of it, i never wore this Mickey Mouse shirt to school...or actually, i don't think i've EVER worn it, yet. too bad, b/c i had a student at one school who was quite the chatterbox, and her voice was so shrill and squeaky that it reminded me of one of those yappy little dogs you could hear from a block away. i swear, if she was talking to someone in the hallway i could hear her piercing voice from the staffroom, and quite often if i had to walk by or go get something outside i'd make sure to cover my ears and visibly express the pain that her voice was causing me. everyone seemed to find this rather amusing, and while she was a pretty genki kid in class and behaved for the most part, the thing that made it most memorable was the fact that it really did pain me to listen to that frequency for extended periods of time. her name was Mikki, hence i nicknamed her "Mikki Mouse".

actually, yeah it's probably better that i never wore this one to school. would've never heard the end of it...

starting the new year off with: Beeeeef

picked this one up on one of my two trips out to Yokohama. the second one...not the first one where i was homeless for a night on NYE, playing guitar to fellow street urchins at Sakuragicho harbour. that was an experience to be had...but once was enough right? riiight...

Happy New Year!